While reading the newspaper last week the headline over a technology advice column caught my eye, “Almost everything uses up your minutes”. 

Since I had been thinking about the time crunch we all deal with and making the best use of time I decided to read more about it.

The column was actually responding to a woman’s query about how she is charged for the various types of usage on her cell phone. Not exactly what I was looking for. However, it made me think because, just as calls, text messages, downloads and browsing the Internet are all deductions from your wireless plan’s allowable cell phone minutes, everything we do with our Life Plan minutes has a cost, as well.

Whether I am zoned out in front of the TV or up to my eyeballs in my work, the time spent is, quite literally, time spent.

With life we do not have the option to pay more for a plan with more minutes so it is a good idea to think before wasting our precious time.

I don’t feel that we need to be frantically busy every moment. Sometimes rest and recreation, doing the things we enjoy just because we enjoy them, is the very best use of the minutes we choose to spend in that way.  I am merely suggesting that however we spend our time should be a conscious choice.  This applies to the meetings we plan, the work we do and the minutia of our daily lives.

Just as the cell phone plans charge different rates for different uses, we need to evaluate our activities and place the highest value on time spent creating, nurturing and strengthening relationships.  Options that improve our health, either spiritual, mental or physical, would be on the next tier of my plan. Activities that are less necessary would be assigned a lower value per minute.

This will give us a tool to help us decide which of the many options before us is the best value for the cost.  It’s easy to see that 15 minutes playing with your child, connecting with a loved one or supporting someone in need is a better bargain than hitting the snooze button for an extra few Z’s every morning.

The same philosophy can help you plan your women’s group meetings. Evaluate the ways you might spend that precious meeting time. Choose only the things that will fill the minutes with the greatest value and set the other things aside. Perhaps they can be accomplished via email or a series of phone calls without taking up the group time. That time might be better spent in strengthening our relationships with God and one another.

In your meetings or in your life, get the most value for the cost.  Highest value for the lowest cost equals a bargain, every time.